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Welcome home planned for area soldiers

Soldiers from the Morris/Ortonville area - and a couple from Alexandria and Osakis - will be returning home today, Saturday.

Families were told that the Charlie Battery troops are expected to arrive in Morris at 11:45 a.m. today.

The soldiers will be calling in from time to time on their bus trip home.

The soldiers are traveling from Wisconsin and will be escorted from Sauk Centre to Morris by various county sheriff departments.

In Starbuck, members of the Minnesota Patriot Guard will be waiting to escort them to Morris. They will turn south on the bypass road (Highway 59) outside of Morris so that the buses can then turn north onto Highway 9 and Atlantic Avenue. They will be escorted through downtown Morris.

People are invited to downtown Morris to cheer the soldiers' arrival. There will be fire trucks, flags and lots of yellow ribbons to welcome them home.

Buses will be led through town and to the Morris Armory where they will greet their immediate family; this reception is not open to the public.

A public welcome home program will be held later on Saturday afternoon at the University of Minnesota Morris PE Center. The program will start at 2:15 p.m. with a 20-minute video made by the soldiers while in Kuwait.